PESHAWAR: Speakers at a conference here on Wednesday said that religion should be separated from state affairs for long-term societal development.

The one-day seminar titled ‘State, religion and society’ was organised under the aegis of department of International Relations, University of Peshawar, and Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) , Islamabad.

Uop Vice-chancellor Dr Mohammad Rasul Jan was the chief guest on the occasion while executive director of CRSS Imtiaz Gul and International Relations department chairman Dr Adnan Sarwar were also present.

Addressing the seminar, Endy Bayunia, the keynote speaker from Indonesia, said that all followers of all religions were given due respect in their country.

He said that incidents of religious violence were reported in certain areas but even at the time tolerant attitude of the majority of the population helped the government to control the situation. Resultantly the problems were resolved, he said.

Shabana Mir, a visiting speaker from United States of America, said that people in the US were more religious as compared to other countries like United Kingdom but religion was separated from state affairs there. “It has made the US what it is today,” she added.

Ms Mir said that Pakistani politicians and religious scholars should not use religion for political gains because it could lead to serious eventualities as was witnessed in the past.

Dr Rasul Jan showed concern over lack of respect for Muslims in the countries where they were in minority. “Every country, including Pakistan, should have the moral courage and responsibility to respect the smaller groups and not to adopt discriminatory approach towards them,” he said.

He said that Islam taught tolerance and forbearance and it was duty of the citizens to follow the principles of religion to practice patience and stop violence in case of any incident.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2014